Seasoned politicans face off in Senate District 32 race

View: 32nd Senate District map Voters will get their chance on Tuesday to settle at least the first round of the contest to succeed Gloria Negrete-McLeod in the state Senate.

McLeod left the Legislature in January to join the House of Representatives. Whoever wins the race to take her place in the state Senate will serve out the remainder of her term, which expires in December 2014.

In a quirk of state law, the candidates are running to represent the pre-redistricting boundaries of the 32nd Senate District, which spans from Pomona to San Bernardino.

In the very likely event that none of the six candidates wins a majority vote on Tuesday, the top two winners will compete in a General Election set for May 14.

Paul Vincent Avila

Avila's name will appear on the ballot, but he's actually endorsed one of his opponents - Ontario Mayor Paul Leon. That's not exactly orthodox political procedure, but Avila's not exactly the most orthodox politician in the Inland Valley.

Avila, a Democrat, is currently a member of the Ontario council, where he serves after being elected in November despite spending no money on his race. Avila was a member of the Ontario-Montclair School Board at the time he was elected to council.

He repeatedly expressed a desire to retain both positions and after receiving legal advice from the school district's attorney that doing so would be against the law, he ultimately resigned his school board post, which he had held for 16 years.

Avila is a Democrat and his decision to endorse Leon, a Republican, did not come without consequences. The San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee voted on the last day of February to expel him from the body.

Avila said he will not vote for himself. Instead, Leon will get his vote.

"I feel that Paul has a voice. A strong voice," Leon said. "If he doesn't cut it, I'm there right by him. It's going to be me or him."

Kenny Coble

Kenny Coble is a Pomona planning commissioner and construction company owner who is making his second attempt to run for the state Legislature in two years.

Last year, Coble was the Republican Party's nominee to run against Norma Torres for the state Assembly. November's election ended with Torres winning a comfortable victory. However, Gloria Negrete-McLeod's election to Congress and the promise of a special election for her state Senate seat meant that Coble was talking about a rematch with Torres before election night was over.

Coble is the only candidate of the six who are on the ballot who does not hold elective office, and he wants voters to view his private sector experience as the key difference between himself and his competitors.

"I'm the only actual businessman here, and I'm the only one with an actual plan," he said.

If elected, he said his economic plan would be to use his position in the Legislature to refocus the state's education system to prepare high school graduates for careers in technology and advanced manufacturing since "a strong back isn't enough" to get a job when computer skills are often needed to use industrial equipment.

"We're not providing people with the skills they need to go out and get the jobs that we need," he said.

Coble predicted that Sacramento could make the necessary investments at schools, libraries and career training centers within three to five years.

Joanne Gilbert

Joanne Gilbert is a retired teacher and member of the Rialto Unified School District's board who is counting on her education experience to separate herself from the rest of the field.

Gilbert has said that providing adequate supporting to local school districts would be among her priorities.

She also said she supports a current movement in Sacramento toward giving school districts more time to decide whether they will need to warn teachers of potential layoffs.

"That needs to be changed," Gilbert said.

Sen. Bob Huff, R-Walnut, has introduced a bill that would move the deadline to warn instructors of potential layoffs from March 15 to June 1 of each year. Huff's office has said the bill would save districts money and give teachers a break from unneeded stress since most layoff warnings are not actually carried out.

Gilbert said she has yet to read Huff's bill, so she could not say in an interview if she would vote "yea" or "nay" on it.

Although there are four Democrats in the race, Gilbert and Torres were the only ones to seek the state Democratic Party's endorsement. Democratic delegates overwhelmingly favored Torres, and Gilbert has raised a relatively small amount of funds - about $5,200 through the filing period that ended February 23.

Gilbert, however, said she doesn't mind being a relative outsider in the race.

"I think my campaign is going great," she said. "For one thing, we need to stop recycling the same people over and over again. My platform is to be accessible to everyone.

Paul Leon

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon is pitching his candidacy on the idea that if Ontario can be a financially healthy city, he can help California be a financially healthy state.

While other cities have engaged in painful cuts, Leon said Ontario survived the past recession and lean years without interrupting government business.

Leon is a moderate Republican - he doesn't hate social services but is more likely to talk about economic growth in the context of easing regulations for the companies that do business in California.

For example, Leon says the California Environmental Quality Act needs to be reformed in order to make it harder for "lawyers and groups to just come out of the woodwork at the 11th hour" and file lawsuits that can lead to lengthy construction delays.

There is already some momentum in Sacramento to adjust the state's environmental law. State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg introduced a bill that contains several provisions to streamline the environmental review process.

Leon said he has yet to study Steinberg's proposal.

As a candidate for state Senate, Leon has also said he would use a seat in the Legislature to continue his efforts to bring L.A./Ontario International Airport under local control.

He also says he wants California to bring back redevelopment agencies, which were abolished in 2012 to shift funding from local agencies to Sacramento.

The California Republican Party has endorsed Leon.

Norma Torres

Norma Torres won her third term in the Assembly in November and her current bid for the state Senate is practically a continuation of her 2012 campaign.

Torres' priorities continue to include her support for local control of ONT as well as the extension of the Gold Line light rail line from the Pasadena area to the airport.

"I think it's another piece to ensure that the airport is going to be here," Torres said.

As an assemblywoman, Torres has also supported increased restrictions on the foreclosure process.

Before being elected to the Assembly, Torres served as mayor and council member for Pomona. She has also worked as a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Torres, endorsed by the California Democratic Party, has the most financial support of any candidate in the race. Campaign filings covering contributions from the beginning of the year through Feb. 23 show Torres' campaign collected nearly $347,000 during that period.

That compares with the nearly $164,000 Leon, who collected the second-largest amount of money, raised during the same period.

Torres' contributors include Democratic politicians, labor unions and business groups. She said her high levels of support are an outcome of being willing to listen to any constituents,

"I'm always open to everybody, whether we agree or disagree," she said.

Larry Walker

Larry Walker is the only candidate in the race to have the support of the Gloria Negrete-McLeod, the person he and the other five candidates in the race are trying to succeed.

Walker has also held several elected positions. At present he holds the combined posts of San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector. He has also served as a San Bernardino County supervisor and a mayor and council member for Chino, where he was first elected to office in 1978.

Walker is positioning himself as a fiscally-conservative Democrat whose experience in financially-focused agencies will enable him to help Sacramento keep the state's budget balanced.

"I'm not trying to belittle anybody else, but my experience as Auditor/Controller puts me in a puts me in a position to deal with some of these financial issues," he said.

Walker also said his financial experience would be of value as the Legislature addresses the state's implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

He also said he wants to work on improving the state's transportation networks if he is elected.

"I'm going to continue to be supportive of transportation infrastructure. We have to look at freeway, we have to look at rail. We have to look at the airport," he said.